Anger is imaginary. We create it through inner dialogue and imagination. We convince ourselves that we ought to be angry. Anger is a story we tell ourselves.
Instead of getting angry, try to find a solution to the perceived problem. If you can’t find one, maybe it’s not yours to find.
Work stress is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to get in the way of a good night’s sleep. Try these strategies during the day to avoid worrying about work at all hours of the night.
Make a to-do list. The act of writing down uncompleted tasks allows us to put them out of mind.
Keeping a journal, where you write down thoughts and feelings. Putting pen to paper can help process emotions and reduce anxiety.
Get some exercise. Physical activity — even a single instance — decreases rumination, which is often linked to insomnia.
Practice meditation. Researchers have found that even small amounts of mindful meditation (10 minutes before and after work for two weeks) helped calm racing minds and improved sleep quality and duration.
Lastly, be easy on yourself. Self-compassion can often break the cycle of negative thoughts that keeps you up.
Work stress may be inevitable at times, but these strategies can increase our ability to wake up feeling refreshed and able to tackle the biggest challenges.
When a problem appears too large, too intractable, and too unspeakable to deal with, it’s easy to give up.
There never seems to be enough time, enough resources, or enough money to make the big problems go away.
Perhaps we can start with a very small part of it. One task, one opportunity, one step.
Drip by drip, with commitment.
Those are the two hard parts. The insight to do it drip by drip and the persistence to commit to it.
Remember the thing you were deeply passionate about, what you felt you were “made for”? You still have what it takes to do it.
The truth is that no one holds the answers for your life; you must find them for yourself.
You can either dismiss this truth and end up filling your life with regret. Or you can embrace this truth and fill your life with learnings that make memorable and happy.
What will you choose? – Do it now or never
We are all dealing with unprecedented — and seemingly endless — uncertainty right now.
While we may not have as much clarity as we like, we can avoid feeling disoriented by developing an “uncertainty capability” and reframing our outlook on the unknown.
Some common reframes include:
Learning. Let’s ask ourselves what we can learn from the situation rather than automatically viewing it as a setback.
Games. Remember that we win some and lose some.
Gratitude. Recognize what we already have and be thankful for it.
Randomness. A lot of life is random. What happens isn’t always our doing.
Without a clear end to the pandemic in sight, it’s important that we develop and sustain a healthy relationship with the things we don’t know and can’t control.
These shifts in what we think about uncertainty will help us build resilience and a positive outlook.
You’re going to learn more by letting go than you will by repeating the same thoughts over and over in your mind.
You have to leave room for insight to make itself known. Your busy mind is merely keeping you busy, it’s not increasing your understanding.
Begin by letting go. Begin by trusting that the right answers will find you. Begin with an open mind.
When you’re working from home, you may find yourself feeling distracted by your looming personal responsibilities. You don’t have to push aside nagging thoughts such as, “I really should put in a load of laundry,” or, “Isn’t it time to do exercise?” — you can use these impulses to your advantage.
Physical chores may provide welcome relief after hours of video conferences and calls, thought work, and you can build them into your schedule. For example, if you’re having trouble starting a slide deck, decide ahead of time that you’ll walk the dog as soon as you get the first three slides done.
Weaving the daily responsibilities into your workday can help you feel more productive both personally and professionally, leaving you feeling more refreshed and energized for the days ahead.
It’s easy for us to worry. The world is upside down, the tough period continues, a tragedy unevenly but widely distributed.
Worry takes a lot of effort. And worry, unlike learning or action, accomplishes nothing of value.
And, at the same time, due to the time-horizon of the pandemic, it’s also tempting for us to wait. To wait for things to get back to normal. But all the time we’re spending waiting (for a normal that is unlikely to be just like it was) is time we’re not spending learning, leading or connecting.
If we decided to simply reduce our waiting and worrying, just imagine how much we could discover, how many skills we could learn, how dramatically attitudes could shift.
We can still wait (even though time will pass either way). And we can still worry (even though it doesn’t do any good). But perhaps we can figure out how to do it less.
If you are feeling bored. “That’s on you.”
As soon as you’re tired of being bored at work, at home, on lockdown, wherever you’ll go find a challenge. You don’t have to quit your day job to be challenged, but you do have to be willing to leap, to take some responsibility, to find something that might not work.
Being challenged at work is a privilege. It means that you have a chance, on someone else’s nickel, to grow. It means you can choose to matter.
Be glad you’re feeling bored, and now be excited to plan what you’re going to go do about it.
Our experience of time always goes in one direction – Forward.
It might seem to speed up or slow down, but the outside world conspires to keep things moving from today to tomorrow.
Given that nothing is ever going to be the same, and that backward isn’t an option, our only choice is forward.
That’s always been true. As soon as we encounter something, anything, it will never be as it was.
Fortunately, we have a chance to make things better going forward. Every day, the next day.
